Adding fruit to wheat beer

[Flatline9]

Hi Guys,

I've got my first ever wheat beer fermenting away. I want to add some fruit to it (of the berry variety) and require your suggestions. I plan on freezing the fruit and heating them in a pan to sterilise. The beer has been fermenting a week so far. Would you suggest just throwing the fruit in the same FV and leaving another 1-2 weeks before bottling, or transferring to a secondary FV to add the fruit? If the latter, then should I wait another week for fermentation to finish, and how long would you leave it in secondary for?

Cheers

 

[strange-steve]

I made a blueberry wheat and I put the fruit in the secondary then racked the beer on top. The day before I put them in a bowl and mashed them up with a couple of campden tabs to sanitise them but of course pasteurising is probably more reliable. I was trying to avoid the cooked fruit flavour which is why I chose that method.

Let fermentation finish then rack on top the fruit, fermentation will kick off again due to the sugar in the fruit so I left it for 2 weeks then bottled. What fruit are you adding and how much?

 

[chub1]

Did a raspberry wheat. De frosted frozen fruit and just chucked it in the FV for 5 days, not a problem,came out nice.
Having been frozen any nasties should be done for:thumb:

 

[Flatline9]

What fruit are you adding and how much?

I've got a mixed bag of strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. I was thinking of adding 1.2 Kg to a 10L batch. Thoughts? Too much, too little?

Did a raspberry wheat. De frosted frozen fruit and just chucked it in the FV for 5 days, not a problem,came out nice.
Having been frozen any nasties should be done for:thumb:

I was also thinking that by boiling them up into a mush, the flavour/juice will spread out and mix into the beer better than if they were whole? Thoughts?
:

 

[chub1]

I've got a mixed bag of strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. I was thinking of adding 1.2 Kg to a 10L batch. Thoughts? Too much, too little?



I was also thinking that by boiling them up into a mush, the flavour/juice will spread out and mix into the beer better than if they were whole? Thoughts?
:

No idea i'm afraid.
All i can say is that the raspberries gave a nice light tinge of pink/red and just a tad tart.
Would boiling not destroy flavour?, i don't honestly know.

 

[Flatline9]

No idea i'm afraid.
All i can say is that the raspberries gave a nice light tinge of pink/red and just a tad tart.
Would boiling not destroy flavour?, i don't honestly know.

I think excessive boiling will remove flavour, yes. I was planning just enough to turn it into a liquid goop with the hope of getting some colour into the beer. I can post my results in a few weeks :)

 

[Slid]

I've got a mixed bag of strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. I was thinking of adding 1.2 Kg to a 10L batch. Thoughts? Too much, too little?

I was also thinking that by boiling them up into a mush, the flavour/juice will spread out and mix into the beer better than if they were whole? Thoughts?
:

Sounds like a lot to me. I have added 500g of frozen blackberries to a kit lager in the past. This would have been a full length 25L brew. I doubt, though that it will be undrinkable, and you can always blend a bottle of fruity with a bland bottle down the road.

 

[Covrich]

Sounds like a lot to me. I have added 500g of frozen blackberries to a kit lager in the past. This would have been a full length 25L brew. I doubt, though that it will be undrinkable, and you can always blend a bottle of fruity with a bland bottle down the road.

Was it you Slid who added blackberries to the coopers canadian blonde kit to make an abbey blonde or am I mistaking you?

 

[Slid]

Was it you Slid who added blackberries to the coopers canadian blonde kit to make an abbey blonde or am I mistaking you?

Yes it was, except I called it a "blushing blonde". I treated the blackberries with pectolase, which would be unnecessary in a wheat beer, which will be cloudy anyway.

It was a good experiment, in the sense that it convinced me that hops are the best way to improve a (kit) beer.

 

[strange-steve]

I think that'll be a decent amount, I used 5kg if blueberries in a 21L batch but they have a more subtle flavotthan the berries you're using. As chub says the berries will probably add a little tartness to the beer.

 

[Flatline9]

Just wanted to post what I did in the end. Added the 1.2 Kg mix of strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants to about of litre of boiled water. Heated them up on the hob, blended them up into a goop and brought to the boil very briefly to sterilise, but (hopefully) not remove flavour. Cooled to room temperature and then racked the 10L of wheat beer on top of them. The colour is a very nice dark red/purple and has increased the batch size to about 12L. I tasted the goop before racking; as the berries are sainsbury's basics, they obviously aren't the sweetest fruits in the world. I expect the final product to be quite sharp/tart, but I'm getting into that sort of beer. If it's excessively tart then I might add some lactose before bottling to balance it out. Planning on having it ready in a 5L mini keg for a halloween party, so fingers crossed!

:

 

[braziliain]

Just wanted to post what I did in the end. Added the 1.2 Kg mix of strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants to about of litre of boiled water. Heated them up on the hob, blended them up into a goop and brought to the boil very briefly to sterilise, but (hopefully) not remove flavour. Cooled to room temperature and then racked the 10L of wheat beer on top of them. The colour is a very nice dark red/purple and has increased the batch size to about 12L. I tasted the goop before racking; as the berries are sainsbury's basics, they obviously aren't the sweetest fruits in the world. I expect the final product to be quite sharp/tart, but I'm getting into that sort of beer. If it's excessively tart then I might add some lactose before bottling to balance it out. Planning on having it ready in a 5L mini keg for a halloween party, so fingers crossed!

:

How did it turn out in the end? Did the boiling work?

In the Greg Hughes book it suggests adding frozen raspberries whole 4 days into fermentation. I'm gearing up for a raspberry wheat in Jan.

 

[Flatline9]

How did it turn out in the end? Did the boiling work?

In the Greg Hughes book it suggests adding frozen raspberries whole 4 days into fermentation. I'm gearing up for a raspberry wheat in Jan.

Mixed results. The colour came out beautifully, a very deep purple. The aroma was very strongly of the berries, but the flavour was a bit more subtle than I would have liked. The only problem was that racking to bottle was an absolute nightmare as there was so much debris! So I lost a lot of beer as the siphon was getting clogged. I've since done this method again with blueberries for a Berliner Weisse, but I added the mashed fruit to a mesh bag for easy removal. I haven't tasted this beer yet, but the colour is nice and bottling was super easy. So I would recommend this method.

You easily could just add them whole, but I think by mixing them up you can increase the release of colour and flavour. Good luck!

 

[dad_of_jon]

Just about to kick off my wheat with cherry extract. :grin:

2kg muntons dwe
1.5kg lwe
1 454g can of golden syrup
20 litres of chase spring water

MJ' bavarian wheat yeast. looking at around 6% abv

1 bottle of alcofferm 5% cherry extract. (to go into bottling bucket)

 

[Clint]

A fruit wheat is on my list! Doj this sounds great! What are the first two items on the ingredients list? Also where do you get the cherry extract? Oh..and while I'm at it could you give some assembly instructions. ..


Cheers

Clint

 

[braziliain]

Mixed results. The colour came out beautifully, a very deep purple. The aroma was very strongly of the berries, but the flavour was a bit more subtle than I would have liked. The only problem was that racking to bottle was an absolute nightmare as there was so much debris! So I lost a lot of beer as the siphon was getting clogged. I've since done this method again with blueberries for a Berliner Weisse, but I added the mashed fruit to a mesh bag for easy removal. I haven't tasted this beer yet, but the colour is nice and bottling was super easy. So I would recommend this method.

You easily could just add them whole, but I think by mixing them up you can increase the release of colour and flavour. Good luck!

Do you think the boiling reduced the flavour?

Good tip with the bag. Think I'll give them a gentle squashing in the bag and add them without boiling.

Hope the blueberry beer comes out well, it sounds delicious.

 

[dad_of_jon]

A fruit wheat is on my list! Doj this sounds great! What are the first two items on the ingredients list? Also where do you get the cherry extract? Oh..and while I'm at it could you give some assembly instructions. ..


Cheers

Clint

dried wheat extract
liquid wheat extract. (they didn't have enough of the dried wheat extract at the time so I had to improvise and buy a 1.5kg can.) This would equate to about 1.2kg of dried wheat extract.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Cherry-Extract.html

Method:

first i've I've super chilled (in freezer) 2 x 2 litre bottles and put another 2 x 2 litre bottles in the fridge.

So I put 3 litres of room temp chase spring into the boiling pot.

I boil the other litre (cos it comes in 2 litre bottles) in a kettle and put 150ml boiled water into a sanistised glass jug - for the yeast. -

The remainder of the water goes into the boil pot. I then boil a full kettle of tap water and place the unopened cans of LWE and Golden syrup into saucepans with the boiled water to loosen the syrup/extract.

Whilst that's warming up I empty the dried wheat extract into the boil pot, stirring first to get a whirlpool in the centre and avoiding getting the extract on the stalk of the stirring paddle, the paddle stirrs around the outside and the dried extract goes in near the middle.

Repeat until all the bags have been poured in. Stir further until clumps have gone.

empty the contents of the cans into the boil pot: use a tea-towel or oven gloves the cans can be quite hot.

raise to a boil for 10 mins - to sterilise. pour into an FV.

the water for the yeast should be 30-35 degrees by now (check it first)so add the yeast to the water in the glass jug.

top up the fermenting vessel (FV) to about 22 litres. add the re-hydrated yeast no higher than 28 deg C. no lower than 20 deg c.

in two weeks time make up the cherry extract in about 100ml of vodka. This gives you 200ml of sanitised cherry extract. boil 300ml of water then add 110-160 (dependant on how fizzy you want it) grams of brewing sugar for 5 mins. to make the priming solution.

bung the lot into a bottling bucket and syphon the beer onto the solution.

bottle it!

keep in warm (20-25 deg c) for 7-14 days* then chill and enjoy.

* use at least one plastic pop bottle to test when it's carbonated. when the bottle is HARD the beer has fizzed up.

any more Q's just ask....

gotta go an pitch the yeast now....

 

[Clint]

Sounds great...thanks! Just had a look around..Holland and barrett do a 100% cherry concentrate 210 ml for around £9...wonder if this would be OK?

Cheers

Clint

 

[dad_of_jon]

Sounds great...thanks! Just had a look around..Holland and barrett do a 100% cherry concentrate 210 ml for around �£9...wonder if this would be OK?

Cheers

Clint

I think concentrate is different to extract. There was a post on the forum somewhere about using h&B cherry extract I think more was needed for a big cherry hit.

My extract specsheet:

https://www.brouwland.com/en/pdf/023.660.4.pdf

concentrate, cordial and syrup will have more sugars included than extract so those will ferment and give you a stronger drink. check the carbohydrates/sugars on the bottle for an indication.

The other thing to consider is how much cherry do you want in your beer? - it could be anywhere from a subtle hint of cherry to a smack in the face with a 10 ton truck full of cherries. I suppose the main thing here is if you like the base beer you are brewing to go with cherries you're good to go. adding too much cherry might turn you off but not enough cherry and you'll still have a beer!

I should also disclose i've done a cherry wheat with 2.5 bottles of polish syrup

https://groceries.asda.com/product/snacks-confectionary/lowicz-cherry-syrup/910001837679

It was a stunning colour and tasted of cherry but was 8% :whistle: I'm after more cherry again, something like the amount of cherry you get in a kasteel rouge but in a lighter base beer.

How much cherry do you want in your beer? - it could be anywhere from a subtle hint of cherry to a smack in the face with a 10 ton truck full of cherries. I suppose the main thing here is if you like the base beer you are brewing to go with cherries you're good to go. adding too much cherry might turn you off but not enough cherry and you'll still have a beer!

If you can wait till the 14th Jan I'll be bottling mine then and am happy to report what the extract turns out like when I take a bottling sample or I could send a bottle over once it's carbed up. Otherwise try the H&B out. Cherry is not the cheapest fruit to add unfortunately :-(

 

[Clint]

How much dry malt was you originally going to use?

Cheers

Clint

Yeah I'll wait and see how it turns out..thanks!
Using the syrup...I take it they are full of fermentable ? sugar...so do you add at bottling time for carbonation or bung into primary...?they are cheap enough..